Internet Engineering Task Force                                 J. Palet
Internet-Draft                                               Consulintel
Expires: June 3, 2006                                  November 30, 2005


                 IETF Meeting Venue Selection Criteria
        draft-palet-ietf-meeting-venue-selection-criteria-02.txt

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Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2005).

Abstract

   This document provides the technical and logistic criteria for the
   IAD towards the IETF meetings venue selection, which should be
   considered in order to conclude the relevant contractual
   negotiations.








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Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
   2.  Location and Hosting Criteria  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  3
     2.1.  Vacation Destinations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.2.  Hosting and Sponsorship  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
     2.3.  Freedom of Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.4.  Productivity and Working Environment Considerations  . . .  5
     2.5.  Attendance Limitation and Visa Considerations  . . . . . .  6
     2.6.  Decision and Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   3.  Logistic Criteria for the Venue Selection  . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.1.  Meeting Rooms Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     3.2.  Other Venue Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9
     3.3.  Sleeping Rooms Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
     3.4.  Local Transportation Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . 11
     3.5.  Airport/Wide Area Transport Considerations . . . . . . . . 11
     3.6.  Food Logistics Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.7.  Technical and Regulatory Considerations  . . . . . . . . . 12
     3.8.  Health Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
   4.  Technical Criteria for the Venue Selection . . . . . . . . . . 13
   5.  Logistic Risks and Contingencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
   6.  Technical Risks and Contingencies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   7.  Timing and Planning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   8.  Venue Acceptance/Rejection Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
   9.  Process and Openness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   10. Other Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   11. Conclusions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
   12. Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   13. IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   14. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   15. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     15.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
     15.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
   Intellectual Property and Copyright Statements . . . . . . . . . . 20
















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1.  Introduction

   The IETF meetings are an important part of the IETF process and their
   hosting and organization must be carefully planned.  The adequate
   planning will allow to ensure that the attendees take advantage of
   their time at the meeting with a minimum set of guarantees for
   maximizing their performance, which also avoids unexpected situations
   and expenses (for example in case of a meeting cancellation, lack of
   adequate working conditions, lack of reliable connectivity, etc.).

   This document describes elements for both, logistic and technical
   criteria for the venue selection, logistic and technical contingency
   measures, as well as details related to the planning and timing.

   The criteria depicted in this document, in general, is not a strict
   list of "must" items, but a list of what needs to be evaluated
   considering variations and alternative solutions, or combinations of
   them, that may be available and convenient.  At the end is the IAD
   who will have the final decision and will be accountable for it, and
   he is consequently responsible for balancing the criteria defined in
   this document according to the hosting/sponsorship availability.

   Previous experience shows that things could go wrong when there is a
   too strict dependence on specific people or equipment and no
   alternative points of contact or availability is provisioned.
   Overall contingency is consequently very important.


2.  Location and Hosting Criteria

   A general recommendation has been that the IETF should try to become
   nearer to the people that contribute.  However, the IETF is growing
   in terms of participants from many countries and although a large
   number of them are from North America, experience shows that when the
   meeting is organized somewhere else, fewer than half the participants
   come from North America.  Consequently, to ensure open international
   access, the IETF should meet outside North America at least one time
   in three.

   However, this is a very basic recommendation and the overall
   selection criteria from this document is the one that will finally
   qualify the location.

   When choosing the location, it is important to consider as well, that
   the surplus coming from the meetings is very important for the
   sustainment of the IETF.  Consequently, each particular meeting
   overall cost should be considered as part of a more global operation,
   not just each meeting as a standalone event.  For instance, a lower



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   meeting cost (balance among food, facilities, network, meeting fees,
   host capabilities, sponsorship, attendees cost), may not necessarily
   mean a lower secretariat cost.  At the same time, the overall average
   participant cost must also be taken in consideration as it may happen
   that a venue is cheap and generates a high surplus for the IETF, but
   the average cost for attendees (flights, hotels, other costs),
   becomes much more expensive and consequently even might generate a
   drop in the attendance.

2.1.  Vacation Destinations

   Vacations destinations may seem difficult for some people, but this
   could also be true for other situations always for a few people.  At
   the same time, frequent contributors and/or participants of IETF will
   often not need to justify their participation regardless of the
   location.

   One consideration, specially relevant if a vacations location is
   chosen, is to avoid places with a very heavy concentration of
   visitors, together with a very heavy airport overload, which could
   difficult an easy transit for IETF participants.  The point in this
   cases is to confirm that the additional load caused by IETF
   participants is not an issue.

2.2.  Hosting and Sponsorship

   The choice of continent and country depends not only on the
   logistical and technical criteria listed in this document, but also
   on offers of hosting and sponsorship.  The IETF also desires to meet
   in countries with significant actual or potential participation.

   Hosting and sponsorship have particular impact both financially and
   organizationally.

   Experience shows that when IETF goes to a new country, an eager and
   committed local host organization is vital.  Also, a local host
   willing to sponsor some facilities for the meeting (without marketing
   noise) may be of great assistance to the budget in any country.

   Some of these matters may be subject to confidential negotiations,
   which should be in the hands of IASA and in particular the IAD [1].

   Regarding the sponsorship itself, the meetings are not directly
   rewarding as a marketing action as it is usually the case for other
   events.  The reason for this is that the IETF community is mainly
   engineers, which in general are not decision makers which may become
   customers.  However, sponsoring IETF offers an important rewarding
   action from the perspective of the community contribution.  As a



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   consequence, this "lower level" rewarding is one more reason to make
   sure that not all the sponsorship details are openly disseminated,
   unless clearly authorized by the host, and even do, it can be contra-
   productive for future meetings.

   However it may be interesting to have, after each meeting, a summary
   evaluation of all the issues and costs, overall figures, which will
   help to improve the criteria and the performance of the following
   meetings.

2.3.  Freedom of Participation

   One more important consideration is the avoidance of locations in
   countries where some attendees could be disallowed to come in or
   where freedom of speech is not guaranteed for all he participants.

   IETF is an open organization and anyone from any region should always
   be able to participate, so the meeting place can not be a barrier.

2.4.  Productivity and Working Environment Considerations

   The productivity of working groups in IETF meetings is very
   important, this means that the "ideal" venue should try to facilitate
   good participation from frequent WG contributors and lots of local
   participation (first time attendees which often want to participate
   again in the future and become our next generation of contributors).

   The rotation of locations for the increased participation of new
   people is also very important.

   The working environment should enable to do our business without too
   much outside interference.  For instance, toughness of visa criteria
   and/or length of process, excluded contributors are factors.

   Is expected that the country hosting the IETF meeting should not
   restrict the participant's freedom of expression, for example by
   blocking web sites or redirecting dns which may be required during
   the meeting for usual participants business, censoring of personal
   communications, blocking of VPN/SSH and other similar practices.

   Freedom of speech during the meeting must be guaranteed as well.

   It is also a barrier to be seriously considered if local participants
   attending the IETF could be under pressure to support national
   technical policies on threat of imprisonment or other punitive
   actions, for their opinions.

   Finally, it should be possible for local participants to attend the



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   meeting without any special government approval.  Otherwise, the
   venue does not support the increased local participation, which is
   one of the goals for this criteria.

2.5.  Attendance Limitation and Visa Considerations

   The country hosting the event should not limit the attendance for any
   participant.  Places in the world were a significant number of
   contributors can't go or if they have to do a lot of work, should be
   rejected as a candidate to host the IETF.

   The average time required to apply for & issue a visitor visa
   suitable for a short-term visit for the IETF business need to
   confirmed.  If is not predictable in advance and measurable in small
   numbers of months, that itself is a barrier to participation to be
   seriously considered, together with the cost of that process.

   Special considerations must be made by the IAD in case the visa
   requirements are so stringent as to make it impossible or even
   extremely difficult for some participants to attend.

   The host country should not have unreasonable visa regulations, i.e.,
   either visas are not required for the large majority of participants,
   or if they are required, they can be obtained at low cost and don't
   take any unnecessary overhead neither from the organization or the
   attendees itself.

   Citizens of certain countries may have difficulty in obtaining visas
   for political reasons.  The IASA should take all possible steps to
   ensure that official governmental support is available for such
   people.

   Furthermore, explicit requirements and procedures should be worked
   out in advance, coordinated with the host country government and
   posted in the IETF meeting web page.

   If a particular country refuses to cooperate with the IETF in setting
   up procedures for a meeting in their country, then this should be
   posted on the IETF meetings web page and this problem be considered
   in selecting future venues.

2.6.  Decision and Reporting

   An open question is related to who is empowered to take the final
   decision on any candidate venue/location.  Currently it seems that
   the IASA will need to take the decision about who "takes the
   decision", being the IAD on this regards, just the official point of
   contact, consulting the IETF chair and the IASA itself.  Probably



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   also the secretariat and the volunteer team which has been around
   without a formal position on this, should be consulted.

   Despite the need for a certain degree of confidentiality, the
   evaluation of the criteria should allow to be aware of the main
   issues why a venue/location is adequate or is not, and consequently
   some form of open report should be produced after each venue
   evaluation.


3.  Logistic Criteria for the Venue Selection

   The average attendance to an IETF meeting is about 1.300 people,
   however it may span up to 2.300 people in some circumstances (for
   instance, depending on the meeting location).

   Considering this, the suggested venue meeting room capacity is
   calculated for about 1.600 people, including meeting space of about
   60.000/5.500 square feets/meters.

3.1.  Meeting Rooms Considerations

   The following table shows the approximate needs for meeting rooms and
   their expected size including a few days before the meeting,
   considering the usual setup time.  This represents only a basic
   guideline for minimum requirements, and needs to be taken in the
   context of the IETF progress, for example considering the
   participants interest in different work areas, which may create
   logistic problems when configuring each specific meeting agenda, in
   the case that this table is taken a strict rule.





















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    +------+------+-------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    | Room |  Cap |   M.  | W | T | F | S | S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
    +------+------+-------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
    | Term |      |  464  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
    |  NOC |      |   93  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
    | Stor |      |   65  | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | IETF |      |   93  |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Staf |      |   65  |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Host |      |   65  |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Reg. |      |   93  |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Rec. |  900 |  770  |   |   |   |   | X |   |   |   |   |   |   |
    | Meet |  30t |   63  |   |   |   |   | X |   |   |   |   |   |   |
    | Meet |  40t |   63  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 100t |  111  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 200t |  204  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 200t |  204  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 300t |  260  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 300t |  260  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 300t |  260  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 500t |  390  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 500t |  390  |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 40hs |  195  |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Meet | 20hs |   73  |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    |  Brk |      | 1.391 |   |   |   |   | X | X | X | X | X | X |   |
    | Plen | 1500 |  139  |   |   |   |   |   |   |   | X | X |   |   |
    +------+------+-------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

                        Meeting Rooms Requirements

                                  Table 1

   As already indicated above, obviously those figures could change from
   meeting to meeting and are only an orientation.  Indeed, most of the
   time the space in the meeting rooms is becoming short and it this
   should be further considered in the future, including additional
   space to allow a more convenient working environment for the
   participants.

   Note that some of the meeting rooms can be used for several
   functions, according to the meeting schedule, for example the plenary
   meeting room is used only when the rest of the sessions aren't
   occurring, breaks and registration area in the foyer, etc.

   For some of the meeting rooms, such as the storage and NOC, it should
   be possible to have multiple keys so they can be adequately
   distributed to the relevant staff.

   All the meeting rooms should be provided with sufficient number of



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   power sockets and cords for connecting the laptops of about 80% of
   the expected attendees.

   The rooms generally are hold in a 24 hours basis, and is highly
   recommended the possibility to use them at any time w/o restrictions,
   except for the required timing of the cleaning service.  In certain
   places this could be a cost issue and it may be not convenient.

   This may be the case when using conference facilities instead of
   meeting rooms in hotels.  In those cases, it may be necessary to
   increase the security when there are too many entrances.  Some
   additional technical issues may also arise according to previous
   experience, such as access to wiring closets, AV facilities, etc.

   However, from the IETF perspective, the rooms generally do not need
   to be available in 24 hours basis (with the exception of the terminal
   room), but removing and reinstalling cabling, access points, other
   equipment, etc., should not be required by the venue.

   Regarding the rooms availability and considering the variability of
   them, if we define access as ability to enter the room to setup the
   AP or plug in a switch to leave in a corner, but not necessarily to
   enter the room to occupy it, it should be possible to get access to
   the meeting room at least 12 hours prior to a meeting being held in
   that room.

3.2.  Other Venue Considerations

   There should be reasonable seating space in open areas outside of the
   meeting rooms, but not far removed from them, for impromptu hallway
   discussions and such.  Is also expected that power outlets are
   available in those areas.

   The venue should also take in consideration the adequate space
   required to correctly handle the provision of refreshment during the
   breaks, in a comfortable way for the participants.

   A review by the technical team of the security of the location would
   be helpful, for example considering the existence of cameras in
   critical locations.

   Access to the dock and a pallet jack is also very helpful, in order
   to facilitate the reception of the network gear and other materials
   used in the meeting.

   The NOC should provision to setup a router on-site before the
   meeting, in order to test everything well in advance.  It is an
   extremely important requirement that the location of this equipment



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   is accesible for the NOC.

   The venue wiring plan (power and data) should be fully available up
   front as part of the evaluation and during the meeting, with
   immediate access to control rooms, for example in order to make sure
   that if a circuit does trip, is possible to flip it back on almost
   immediately.

   The venue needs to be wheelchair accessible.  Just as a side
   information, the host should be aware also about other possible
   variety of attendees handicaps; for example, some of the regular
   attendees are blind, hypoglycemic, diabetic, or afflicted with any
   number of other handicaps.  One more example is that some attendees
   may have concerns about availability (and even legality) of the drugs
   they need (for instance, there are countries in which possession of
   some drugs - even with a prescription - might get you in a serious
   trouble).  Some information from the host, on this regard, is very
   welcome.

   It is expected that the weather conditions are reasonable considering
   the location of the airport, venue and suggested hotels and expected
   attendees movement across them.

   Similarly, the venue air-conditioning and/or heating capacity should
   be adequate according to the expected attendance and external weather
   conditions, including humidity and location altitude.  The host
   should take note of the side effect of 80% of the attendees using
   their laptops, which typically will dissipate 150-200 watts of heat.
   Obviously this does not mean that the air-conditioning/heating system
   must be on all the time, on the contrary, thermostats should work
   automatically in order to allow a comfortable working environment.

3.3.  Sleeping Rooms Considerations

   Furthermore, the approximate requirements for sleeping rooms will be
   a block of around 5.515 rooms/nights.  Once more, this is only a
   generic guideline and as such should be noted.

   The following table shows the needs for sleeping rooms including a
   few days before the meeting.











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     +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
     | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |  Mon  |  Tue  | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
     +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+
     |  5  | 100 | 450 | 980 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 970 | 770 | 200 |  40 |
     +-----+-----+-----+-----+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

                        Sleeping Rooms Requirements

                                  Table 2

3.4.  Local Transportation Considerations

   The location of the venue (and the main hotel/s in case the venue is
   not a big hotel already) should be such that allows a quick movement
   of the attendees between the sleeping and the meeting rooms.  It is
   strongly suggested that the meeting rooms are in fact located in the
   main hotel (which a minimum capacity of about 60% of the required
   sleeping rooms).

   If the meeting rooms are not located in the same place as the main
   block of sleeping rooms, inexpensive public transport means should
   allow the movement of 100% of the attendees in less than 30 minutes,
   considering the meeting timing and usual public transport utilization
   by the locals.  This may be the case when the meeting is hosted in a
   convention center instead of a big hotel, which may not be available
   in some locations, and is becoming a frequent practice for a number
   of similar meetings.

   The ideal situation is that a number of alternative hotels are at
   walking distance (10-15 minutes) from the event venue.

   If there is a need for several "official" hotels to be choosen as
   IETF recommendations, which often is the case, specially when the
   main one is insufficient to host most of the participants, some sort
   of free of charge connectivity should be made at all the official
   hotels.

3.5.  Airport/Wide Area Transport Considerations

   The airport and/or other wide area transport means need to have
   adequate capacity and decent connections.

   It is expected that there's easy and inexpensive transportation from
   the nearby airports to the meeting site.  Typically this implies an
   airport under 50 kilometer's distance and the availability of public
   transportation and/or affordable taxi services.

   The airport should have adequate capacity considering the number of



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   expected attendees arriving and departing, for example with
   sufficient number of scheduled flights and avoiding bottlenecks due
   to local immigration practices.

   The traveling to the venue location should be possible with a maximum
   of one flight hop from a major hub.  The airport must have a
   diversity of international carriers.

   Detailed instructions for the transportation and approximate cost to
   get to and from the hotels should be made available.

3.6.  Food Logistics Considerations

   The attendees (1.600-2.000) should be able to get food for lunch and
   dinner, according to the meeting timing, in a maximum of 60-90
   minutes, including the transit time (back and forth).

   In general, a requirement will be to have a variety of restaurants
   within walking distance, allowing reservation of small and medium
   tables.  Special requirements (such as vegetarian food, others
   choices) must be satisfied.

   As a general consideration, we can state that meals must be available
   when IETF needs them.  If what this section specifies is not
   completely possible, a combination of this with the on-site delivery
   of good quality sandwiches (including vegetarian and alternative
   choices) could be acceptable.

   A list of places that can deliver food to the venue would be helpful.

   Places for casual meetings such as BAR BoFs should also be available.

3.7.  Technical and Regulatory Considerations

   It should be possible to rent cell phones for the IETF participants.
   This is specially relevant for the secretariat/registration/NOC
   staff.

   It should be possible to know up-front specific regulations of the
   country related to different technological aspects which could affect
   the provision of the network and equipment often used by the staff
   and the attendees, for instance the wireless technology which is
   authorized (it has been noticed that some countries, for example, did
   not authorize 802.11a frequencies by default).

3.8.  Health Considerations

   It should be considered as a handicap if there is any high risk of



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   health impact for a high number of participants (such as malaria or
   other infections or mandatory health checks at immigration).

   This would be acceptable if the vaccination of the participants is
   not going to impact the attendance and in any case, appropriate
   recommendations about vaccinations and mandatory health checks should
   be provided ahead the meeting, in advance enough for the participants
   to take appropriate measures.

   Obviously those recommendations are only guidelines for the attendees
   to check with their own specific situation, because often it will
   depend on a number of factors such as traveler's nationality, where
   the traveler has recently been, where the traveler intends to go
   within the destination country, the length of the stay, and even the
   mode of transportation into the destination country.


4.  Technical Criteria for the Venue Selection

   In order to accommodate the IETF meeting with technical guarantees of
   successful working capabilities for the attendees, the following
   technical issues should be considered:

   This is only a list, need some work.  TBD.

   o  Evaluation of wireless voice communication ("Walkie Talkies" or
      hand held radios).  In some cases the secretariat can bring their
      own equipment, but in some occasions is required to be rented from
      the hotel.

   o  Wired link required for the registration desk/secretariat.

   o  Telecommunications room availability

   o  A mechanism to having access 24 hours a day, ahead of the meeting.

   o  Access to the wiring, what can be uses, what not.

   o  Some facilities have no wiring.

   o  Appropriate wiring plan (power and data).

   o  Some facilities have great network access, others nothing (no
      fiber links up to the venue).  How much can be provisioned and in
      what time.

   o  Need to know the existing infrastructure and what can be done.




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   o  Roof access, in case a WLAN link is required.

   o  If there is already a WLAN in the building can be turned off ?.

   o  Existing infrastructure: fiber, UTP/distances

   o  Feasibility/facility to setup new cables (fiber/UTP)

   o  Pipe (of pipe and drape) needs to be evaluated.  Putting the
      access points on something to raise them above the heads of the
      people is useful.  Acquiring the pipes, bases and in some cases
      sand bags is an extra item to be considered, as many are needed
      for each access point.

   o  Electrical power capacity

   o  24 hours power.  Capacity and special distribution issues.
      Evaluate the cost of extra.

   o  Highly reliable Internet link and BW

   o  20-25 Mbits, today, of symmetric is a minimum requirement.  Backup
      needed.

   o  Multihoming seems to be to strong requirement and will much depend
      on the hosts capabilities, however it can be stated: Multiple
      physical paths are recommended.

   o  Facilities for AV, room dimensions for screens (high/wide)

   o  IPv4 unicast

   o  DNS

   o  DHCP

   o  FTP

   o  WWW

   o  SAMBA (local mirror of ID's)

   o  IPv4 multicast: is still needed today ?

   o  IPv6 unicast

   o  IDS, other security issues




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   o  No content filtering or ACLs.

   o  Managed devices across the entire network ?

   o  Test the network under heavy load

   o  Printers

   o  NOC - primary and backup contacts for all the issues/topics

   o  Provide stats and info on network status

   o  WLAN expertise and debugging/monitoring

   o  Document what can be wrong with the WLAN in advance to inform
      users - FAQ to users

   o  Make the wired network production quality, WLAN experimental ?

   o  Wires to all essential services (e.g. audiocast, chairs,
      presenter, jabber scribe)

   o  White board for the NOC, in visible place


5.  Logistic Risks and Contingencies

   Physical safety and security threats at the location must be
   evaluated, understanding that the attendees come from all over the
   world.  Any specific threats must be addressed in advance (hiring
   guards, etc.).

   Appropriate warnings (e.g. about local crime risks) must be given.

   An emergency response plan and risk analysis must be in place
   throughout the meeting, covering issues such as food intoxication,
   medical problems, indications when something is stolen, etc.

   A red colored paper should be included in the participants
   registration envelope with details about the evacuation plan.  It
   should also include a clear statement regarding the situation in case
   of cancelation (for instance, attendee costs versus committed costs
   with the host/hotel, retention of meeting fees, etc.).

   An evaluation of war and terrorism risk and measures is also
   required.  The location should have no exceptional security
   considerations on this regard.




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   Appropriate insurance should be investigated for IETF meetings.

   Adequate contingency plans should be available for those risks.


6.  Technical Risks and Contingencies

   TBD.


7.  Timing and Planning

   IETF meeting dates should be planned sufficiently ahead, looking to
   the calendars of other related meetings (in terms of people attending
   them), in order to avoid meetings clashing among them.

   The IETF is a meeting of a considerable size, which makes often
   difficult to find a reasonable venue in a short time.  The general
   recommendation is that any candidate venue should be explored and
   surveyed with a leading time not shorter than 24 months ahead the
   expected meeting dates.  Similarly the final decision for the
   selected venue should be done non later than 18 months in advance to
   the meeting starting date.

   It is especially relevant also to consider that the network setup and
   testing often require around one week time frame in order to ensure
   an appropriate and quality deployment.

   In order to provide the best conditions for the meals and according
   to previous experience, the meeting schedule should be appropriately
   adjusted to the local habits.


8.  Venue Acceptance/Rejection Report

   Despite the information provided by the proponent of a given venue,
   the IAD should, before taking a final decision about the acceptance
   or rejection of a given proposed venue, make an on-site survey for
   those that seem to pass the criteria defined in this document.

   The on-site survey report will compare the selection criteria against
   the proposal information and the actual on-site findings, describing
   possible discrepancies or issues which may need further
   considerations even if they aren't directly described as part of the
   criteria set out-coming from this document.

   A "site report" for the selected site is important for future
   planning.  Similarly in the case of "failed" site decisions, possibly



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   in an anonymous way such as "X, Y, and Z were also considered but had
   to be postponed or abandoned due to lack of available space, sponsor
   agreement, technical considerations, local conditions, etc.".


9.  Process and Openness

   In order to demonstrate the compliance with the IETF meeting venue
   selection criteria, the main information related to the proposal of a
   site will be made publicly available in the IETF web site,
   considering the exclusion of some/all of the negotiation confidential
   issues which could be subjected to the sponsor/hosts decision.

   A summary of the information need to be made public regardless of the
   site being finally selected or not.  If agreed by the proponent, it
   could be very complete, including all the options being considered,
   such as a given city and several venues in the same city, and so on.
   Alternatively, it can be made available not citing the city, but
   instead making clear the reasons why it has not been selected, in
   order to help future proponents to foresee similar issues.

   This will not only help the openness of the process but also as
   collective knowledge helping into a better organization and solution
   of issues for future meetings.

   In principle there should not be hidden details to the community
   regarding the proponent and site options and that should be the
   overall rule for the publication of the details.  However, once a
   venue is selected, there may be contractual bindings which may not
   allow to disclose all the negotiation details, which obviously will
   be restricted to a minimum.

   The published information will describe what was offered by the
   proponent, as well as the report about the on-site survey which
   should be done by the IAD before the final acceptance/rejection of a
   given proposed venue.


10.  Other Issues

   Further elaboration is required (TBD) ?


11.  Conclusions

   TBD.





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12.  Security Considerations

   This document doesn't have any protocol-related security
   considerations.


13.  IANA Considerations

   This document doesn't have any specific IANA considerations.


14.  Acknowledgements

   The author would like to acknowledge the inputs of Adrian Farrel,
   Albert Vezza, Andrew McGregor, Avri Doria, Bill Sommerfeld, Brett
   Thorson, Brian Carpenter, Daniel Senie, Dave Crocker, Ed Juskevicius,
   Eliot Lear, Elwyn Davies, Eric Gray, Eric Rosen, Frank Ellermann,
   Gene Gaines, Harald Tveit Alvestrand, Hui Deng, James M. Polo, Jari
   Arkko, Jim Martin, Joe Abley, Joel Jaeggli, John Loughney, Julien
   Maisonneuve, Karen Odonoghue, Ken Raeburn, Marcia Beaulieu, Marshall
   Eubanks, Melinda Shore, Ole Jacobsen, Paul Aitken, Pekka Savola,
   Phillip Hallam-Baker, Randy Presuhn, Ray Pelletier, Sam Hartman and
   Scott W Brim.


15.  References

15.1.  Normative References

15.2.  Informative References

   [1]  Austein, R. and B. Wijnen, "Structure of the IETF Administrative
        Support Activity (IASA)", BCP 101, RFC 4071, April 2005.


















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Author's Address

   Jordi Palet Martinez
   Consulintel
   San Jose Artesano, 1
   Alcobendas - Madrid
   E-28108 - Spain

   Phone: +34 91 151 81 99
   Fax:   +34 91 151 81 98
   Email: jordi.palet@consulintel.es








































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